Contact Import: Bring Your Book of Business With You

Past customers, event sign ups, the export from the CRM you are leaving, the contacts on a new rep's phone. Smart Contact Import turns any of them into a working list in the time it takes to name it.

Contact import is how a dealership, or a single salesperson, brings the people they already know into LeadLocate CRM. The Import Contacts page runs Smart Contact Import: upload an XLSX workbook, a CSV, a JSON export, an ADF lead file or a vCard of phone contacts, and AI column mapping reads every column and matches it to the right place in the CRM, from first name and cell phone to the vehicle, the address and the details that belong on the customer profile. Column names can be anything, in any order. The page shows how each column will land under Imports as, and you confirm the result before anything is saved.

The list is the unit. Each import creates or adds to a list with a List Name, a record count and the date it last changed, and the Active Contact Lists table on the same page shows every list the account holds. Lists can be renamed by double clicking the name or using the pencil, and Add More appends a second file to an existing list. Because the contacts land in lists, the store can act on a list as a whole: text it, email it, or spread it across the sales team with the Round Robin assignment option at import time.

This is the product side of a subject the older pages cover from the buying angle: what a dealership CRM should do with the customers it already has. The auto dealer software and CRM page describes the whole system; this page is the door the book of business walks through.

A salesperson's customers usually live in three places: the phone in his pocket, the export his last CRM let him take, and the spreadsheet he kept for himself. Smart Contact Import reads all three. The phone's contacts export as a vCard file, one card per customer, and load as his own list with names, numbers and emails in place. The spreadsheet, saved as an XLSX or a CSV, loads with whatever headings he used, because the AI mapping works out that Cust Cell is a mobile number and Last Car is a vehicle. A JSON export from another system loads the same way. And a file of leads in ADF, the format lead providers and dealer websites use to send leads, imports as contacts with the vehicle each one asked about.

For a rep who sells on his own, on CRM Only or as a broker, this is day one: sign in, export the phone's contacts, import them, and the book of business sits in a CRM that texts, emails, schedules and logs every conversation. For a store hiring an experienced salesperson, it is how his customers become the store's customers on the record, assigned to him, the week he starts. The new salesperson's first 30 days page covers the rest of that first month, and one customer profile with the co-buyer included shows where the imported details live once they are in.

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A store switches to LeadLocate at the start of a month. The internet director exports the active customers from the old CRM as an XLSX workbook, which comes out with the old system's column names in the old system's order. She opens Contacts, clicks Manage & Import Contacts, drops the file on the page, and reads down the mapping: the AI has matched each of the old system's columns to its place in LeadLocate. She names the list after the old system and confirms. The list shows its record count. Nobody spent an afternoon renaming column headers to match a template.

The same week, the used car manager brings a spreadsheet of every customer who bought a used vehicle from the store in the last three years, because he wants to run a trade up campaign. He imports it as a list named for the campaign and ticks Round Robin assignment, so the names spread evenly across the six reps in rotation rather than sitting in one queue. Each rep now has a share of past customers to call, and the manager can see who is calling theirs.

A new salesperson starts on the 15th with a book of business from his last store, several hundred contacts on his phone exported as a vCard file. He imports them as his own list. Then, before anyone sends a message, the store runs the Phone Validator and Email Validator over the new lists, so the validity dots on each contact show which numbers and addresses are worth the message, and runs the lists against the Do Not Call Blacklist so a customer who asked the store to stop is not on the first campaign. By the end of the month the store has its past customers, its campaign list and its new rep's book in the CRM, in lists that can be searched, texted and reported on.

Import lives under Contacts in the main menu. The Contacts view has a Manage & Import Contacts button, and the Import Contacts page it opens has two halves: the Smart Import panel, where a file is dropped or chosen, the column mapping is reviewed and a list is named or an existing list is picked, and the Active Contact Lists table, which shows every list with its record count and the date it last changed and offers rename and Add More on each row. The page suggests a clear name for the list, along the lines of Spring Service Leads or April Internet Customers, because a list named Sheet1 is a list nobody uses.

Imported contacts appear in the Contacts view like any other contact, and the same contact tools apply: a contact can be converted to a lead, merged with a duplicate through Merge Duplicate Records, blacklisted, or opened into a Customer Profile. On the phone app, reps see their contacts and can text, call or email them from the dock, so an imported book of business is reachable from the lot the day it is loaded. Lists are also the recipient lists for Bulk Texting and Bulk Email on the Marketing Tools dock, which is where most imported lists end up being used.

The alternative to importing is the situation most stores are in: the customers live in three places, none of which is the CRM. The DMS has everyone who bought, but the DMS is not where anyone sends a text. The old CRM has the leads that did not buy, and its export is a chore nobody finished. And each rep's phone has the customers who actually answer, which walk out the door with the rep. A store that wants to run a trade up campaign has to reconstruct its own customer list from all three, which is why most trade up campaigns never happen.

Some CRMs charge for data migration as a professional service, quoted per record, and take weeks. Others accept an import only in their own template, which means an afternoon in a spreadsheet moving columns and fixing headers before the file is accepted, and a second afternoon when the first upload is rejected. Smart Contact Import reads the file the old system produced, as an XLSX, a CSV or a JSON export, and maps its columns with AI, so the file the old system produced is the file that loads. The cost of moving the book of business drops to the time it takes to export it.

The quieter cost is the rep's personal book. A salesperson who keeps customers on a personal phone has no way to run a campaign, no history the store can see, and no backup. Importing that book as a list in the CRM gives the rep bulk texting, a communications log and a record that survives a lost phone, and gives the store continuity when the rep moves on. The car salesman personal websites page describes the rest of what a rep gets as an individual on the platform.

An imported list is raw material, and three tools turn it into something. First, validate it. The Phone Validator and Email Validator are separate tools in the CRM, and their results appear as validity dots on each contact, so a rep looking at a list knows which numbers are live before dialing and which addresses will bounce before sending. Second, clean it. Merge Duplicate Records catches the past customer who is already in the CRM from a lead last month, and the DNC Blacklist removes anyone who asked the store to stop. Third, use it. Bulk texting and bulk email both take a list as their recipient set, with trackable short links in the texts so the store can see who clicked.

Round robin at upload is the fourth tool, and it is the one that turns a list into work. A list spread across the team is a list every rep has a stake in; a list sitting under one login is a list that gets called when that person has time. The round robin lead assignment page covers how the rotation is set per user, which is what decides who receives a share of an imported list.

A list on a spreadsheet carries no memory of how it was collected, and a store should treat it accordingly. Customers who bought from the store have a relationship with it; a purchased list or a list of unknown origin may not. Before a list is texted, the store should know that the people on it gave the store their number in connection with a purchase or an inquiry. Import Contacts makes the list usable; it does not make the list consented, and a vendor who says otherwise is not doing the store a favor.

The CRM gives the store the tools to act responsibly with what it imports. The Do Not Call Blacklist accepts its own import, a CSV of name, phone and email, so a store's existing do not contact list loads alongside its customer list, and blacklisted contacts are hidden from every CRM view no matter which list they came in on. A live do not call lookup on a number checks it against the national registry before a call is placed. Every text and email sent to an imported contact is written to the communications log, so the store's record of what it sent, to whom and when, starts with the first message. And a customer who replies asking the store to stop is added to the blacklist from the contact, which removes them from every list at once.

Smart Contact Import is available from the first day of the account. Export the contacts from the system they live in now as an XLSX, CSV or JSON file, save the phone's contacts as a vCard, or take the ADF file your lead source sent. Open Contacts and click Manage & Import Contacts, then choose the file or drop it on the Smart Import panel. Read the mapping, change any column that should land somewhere else, give the list a clear name or pick an existing list to add to, and decide whether to tick Round Robin assignment. Confirm, and the list appears in Active Contact Lists with its record count.

Then validate, then clean, then use, in that order. If the file the old system produced is unusual, such as a fixed width export, or if the store wants an ongoing import from a system that exports on a schedule, it is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership. The contact page is the place to describe the source. For the store that is leaving another CRM, a description of what the old system exports is usually all our team needs.

Import is the beginning; the features that follow it are what the book of business is for. The Phone Validator and Email Validator tell the store which contacts are reachable. Merge duplicate leads keeps one record per customer once the import meets the leads already in the CRM. Bulk texting is the campaign the list was imported for. And the Do Not Call Blacklist is the list that runs against every other list.

Contact import is part of the LeadLocate CRM in every plan, including CRM Only, which is the plan built for a store or a salesperson bringing their own customers without LeadLocate lead delivery. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page. The all features list shows where import sits among everything else in the platform.

What file formats does contact import accept?

XLSX, CSV, JSON, ADF and vCard files. Smart Contact Import maps each column with AI, so headings can use any names in any order, and you confirm the mapping before anything is saved.

Where is the Import Contacts page?

Under Contacts in the main menu. Click Manage and Import Contacts, choose a file or drop it on the Smart Import panel, check how each column imports, name the list or pick an existing one, and confirm. The list appears in Active Contact Lists with its record count.

Can a salesperson import the contacts from his phone?

Yes. Export the phone's contacts as a vCard file and import it as his own list. Names, numbers and emails land in place, ready to text, call or email from the desktop CRM and the LeadLocate mobile app.

Can imported contacts be split across my salespeople?

Yes. Tick Round Robin assignment at upload and the contacts are divided evenly across the users in the rotation, so a list of past customers becomes a call list for the whole team.

Can I add to a list later?

Yes. Each list in Active Contact Lists has an Add More option that appends another file to it, and lists can be renamed at any time by double clicking the name or using the pencil.

How do I know which imported numbers and emails are good?

Run the Phone Validator and Email Validator over the list. Results show as validity dots on each contact, so reps see which numbers are live and which addresses will bounce before sending anything.

Is contact import an extra cost?

No. Smart Contact Import is part of the LeadLocate CRM in every plan, including CRM Only. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

Smart Contact Import is part of every LeadLocate plan, month to month. Load the book of business from your old system or your phone in one upload and put it to work the same day.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.